By David Morgan, Associate Editor
DARLINGTON, S.C. – What’s old is new again.
After 12 years under the Playoff format in the NASCAR Cup Series, the Chase is back for the 2026 championship and officially gets underway with Sunday’s running of the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
The 16-driver field was solidified last Saturday night at Daytona with the standings reset for the 10-race run to the title and here’s how the contenders stack up:
- Denny Hamlin – No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (2100 points)
Hamlin comes into the Chase as the No. 1 seed, having won four races on the season and stacking up 14 top-five finishes and 17 top-10 finishes through the first 26 races of the year and by and large is the championship favorite.
After coming so close to winning the title in previous seasons, it appears that Hamlin and the No. 11 team are primed to finally make it happen in 2026 with a 10-race sample size to determine the champion instead of the one-race, winner-take-all format of years past.
Of the 10 tracks in the Chase, Hamlin has scored victories at all of them, including a win at Las Vegas earlier this season and returning to Gateway as the defending race winner, so it only stands to reason that the title will go through Hamlin and the No. 11 team.
What the Driver Says:
“I think that being a favorite in years past, you always know this thing is going to come down to a freaking green-white-checkered in the final race, and that’s how they’re going to decide a championship. I think now it’s like the bigger body of work typically bodes well for Denny Hamlin,” said Hamlin.
“It just always has. You give me more of a sample size, and we’re going to prove that we’re the best over a long period of time. I think that that’s what our fans need to focus on is that just this is a marathon, not a sprint.”
- Ryan Blaney – No. 12 Team Penske Ford (-25)
The lone non-Toyota in the top-six of the standings, Blaney and his Blue Oval will look to spoil the party over the next 10 weeks as he seeks his second Cup Series championship, having previously won the title in 2023.
Team Penske’s Achilles heel this season has been its mile-and-a-half program, but with a number of short/flat tracks in the Chase, if the No. 12 team is able to stay alive long enough in the postseason, they could be a dangerous group by the time all is said and done.
The team also underwent a pit crew swap with the No. 2 team at Team Penske as they look to shore up one of their weaknesses for the postseason run.
Blaney scored three wins on the season (Phoenix, Atlanta, and New Hampshire), along with six top-five finishes and 17 top-10 finishes in the regular season.
What the Driver Says:
“I think we have the opportunity to go perform well at every track,” said Blaney. “I said earlier the mile-and-a-halves are a place to where we know we have to continue to improve, and I feel like we’ve made steps from Chicago. Indianapolis isn’t a mile-and-a-half, but it’s a bigger track and the 22 had a heck of a run there, so that really shows me that we’ve made a step in the right direction.
“I’m just curious to see when we do get those – Charlotte, Vegas and Kansas – but then I think all of the other places we’ve had really good runs, but you can’t rely on that. You have to continue to try to improve, no matter if it’s your best racetracks or forms of tracks or tracks maybe you’ve struggled at. It’s all week-to-week type stuff, but I think we feel good about it.
“It’s just a matter of who can put the best 10 together and someone is gonna do that. Hopefully, we’re one of them that can do it.”
- Tyler Reddick – No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota (-35)
Reddick and the No. 45 team went on a heater to start the season, banking three straight wins to kick things off and adding two more wins to wind up with five wins in the first nine races of the year, leaving many to believe that Reddick would run away with the regular season championship.
However, a summer of rough luck for the team dropped him all the way to third in the standings before the reset. Now Reddick and his team will look to regroup and try and channel that early season energy in the postseason to deliver 23XI its first championship.
Of the Chase tracks, Reddick scored wins at both Kansas and Darlington earlier this year and also has previously banked victories at Talladega and Homestead.
What the Driver Says:
“I don’t think we need to flip a switch or do anything. We are going to be rolling back into tracks where we have won at, where we have led laps at, where we are extremely fast at,” said Reddick.
“Certainly, you could say there is a question mark there at Gateway. There is one at Martinsville, but that doesn’t mean we are going to go there and be bad. We know that we have more room to improve. I’ve looked at the other track types that we visited the first time this year – we made good gains at tracks that we weren’t happy where we were a year ago or a previous year.
“All things seem to be going the right direction at the right time. It would have been great to hang on to the points lead. It would have been great to not fight the things that we did, but as much as the bad finishes were hard on our standing in the points, we learned a lot from it and with this Chase, the gap is gone and we are seeded and we are going to go now.”
- Ty Gibbs – No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (-40)
2026 has certainly been a breakout year for Gibbs and the No. 54 team, scoring his first two wins in the Cup Series (Bristol, Iowa) and becoming a contender on a weekly basis.
With the overall strength of Toyota and JGR, Gibbs should have his best shot yet in the postseason in his fourth full-time season in the Cup Series.
Looking at the other Chase tracks aside from Bristol, where he will look for a season sweep, Gibbs has finished in the top-five at six of those tracks (Darlington, Kansas, Las Vegas Phoenix, Talladega, and Martinsville), with top-10 finishes at Gateway, Charlotte, and Homestead.
What the Driver Says:
“I’m really looking forward to it, and I think we obviously have a great shot of winning it,” said Gibbs. “But my confidence has never wavered. You know, I don’t really live off of confidence, so I just stay after it keep working hard, and I think that we’ve got all the things to win the title, so we’re just going to do what we can.”
- Chase Briscoe – No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (-45)
Briscoe may only have one win on the season, but the No. 19 team has been extremely consistent throughout 2026, scoring top-10 finishes in exactly half of the regular season races, entering the Chase on an upward trajectory after a rough start to the year.
Having won the last two Southern 500s at Darlington, Briscoe will look to make it three in a row to kick off another run at the title, having scored a career best result in the standings a year ago when he finished in third place in the championship.
Aside from Darlington, Briscoe also has previously won at both Phoenix and Talladega, with top-five and top-10 finishes at all of the other Chase tracks.
What the Driver Says:
“I definitely am excited to start with the Southern 500. You know, that’s something that we won’t get to do next year, and that’s for me at least, with just how the tracks line out in this year’s Chase,” said Briscoe.
“If you just look statistically this year the tracks are way better for me than what they would be next year. Excited though to start at the Southern 500. I don’t feel like there’s really a weakness out of any of the Chase races for us. To hopefully go to, Darlington, the goal is a 76-point day, win both stages, win the race and have the fastest lap. And we were able to do that last year, so there’s no reason why we can’t do it again.
“If we do that the 45 points to Denny, even if he runs second in all the stages, it’s cut in half already. That’s the goal and hopefully we can do that.”
- Christopher Bell – No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (-50)
For the first time since his rookie year in the Cup Series, Christopher Bell enters the postseason winless, but in 2026, it wasn’t for a lack of trying.
Of his 11 top-five finishes on the year, seven of those came as runner-up finishes and four of those coming behind his own teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing and/or a fellow Toyota driver, so the speed is there for the No. 20 team, it’s just a matter of things falling his way over the course of the final 10 races.
Bell, a big proponent of returning to the Chase format to determine the champion, also has a history of running well on the slate of tracks in the postseason, scoring victories in previous years at Bristol, Charlotte, Phoenix, Martinsville, and Homestead.
What the Driver Says:
“Can we do this? Can we win a championship? Yes. Without winning, right? Can we win a championship without winning a race? No. That’s my answer. I don’t believe so,” Bell said of his chances at the championship, noting it will take at least one win to make it happen.
“I feel really good about where we’re at. I’m not gonna sit here and tell you that we’re gonna be the champion in 10 weeks, but I think that we’re certainly capable of it. I do believe that the champion will be a Toyota. And, I think the champion will come from the top six seeds. I am pretty confident in those statements. So, we’ll see if they turn out right or wrong. I am confident in those statements.”
- Kyle Larson – No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (-55)
To say it has been an off year for Larson and Hendrick Motorsports as a whole would be an understatement with Larson and the No. 5 team having not visited victory lane since May of 2025, a stretch of 50 races and counting.
Still, Kyle Larson is still Kyle Larson and even on a down year, he can’t be counted out if he and crew chief Alan Gustafson are able to pull something out of a hat over the course of the final 10 races to score their third championship together.
Of the tracks in the Chase, Larson has won at all but two of them, still looking for a win at Gateway and Talladega. Aside from those, Larson has a history of winning and if they are able to find the speed they’ve been missing this year, watch out.
What the Driver Says:
“I’m not as confident as I’ve been, for sure, in other years. But I wasn’t, honestly, sitting here that confident last year, and we were able to win the championship,” said Larson.
“I know there’s a path to do it. We did it last year without winning a race in the final 10 races, and we weren’t even really all that consistent, from what I remember. I think if we can be ultra-consistent in these final 10 races, there’s no doubt that I could see ourselves winning the championship.
“I mean, I could also see ourselves winning four or five races in the Chase. You know, things have to go perfect, but we do have a lot of good tracks for us in these final 10. We just need to execute at a high level, and I think our team is definitely capable of that. We’ll try and do our best.”
- Chase Elliott – No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (-60)
Elliott is the lone Hendrick driver to win a race this season, carrying his No. 9 team to wins at Martinsville and Texas, along with six top-five finishes and nine top-10 finishes over the course of the 26-race regular season.
Still, the overall struggles of Hendrick as a whole loom large over Elliott and all of the cars in the Hendrick stable as they hope to turn back the clock to when HMS dominated the Chase format in its first iteration when Jimmie Johnson scored six of his seven Cup titles in a 10-race postseason format.
Elliott has a history of running well on Chase tracks, with wins at Kansas, Charlotte, Phoenix, Talladega, and Martinsville.
What the Driver Says:
“I do know that you’re never as far off as you probably think you are or can think you are at different moments. I think our performance early in the year is really a good reminder of that, right?
“Like, you know, we had a great start, I thought, to the season. We had a lot of performance in the opening month, month-and-a-half. You know, we were super pumped about that and just excited that we were getting the season started off that way. We kind of had a summer stretch that we didn’t want to have to see. But we did, and we’ve seen both sides of the coin.
“So, again, as bad as things may be or as bad as you can run some days, a lot of the time, you’re just not as far off as you think. You just have to start stacking some of those good days; the feels and the things that you’ve encountered behind the wheel or with setups and piece the good stuff together and start eliminating the bad. That can be hard to do sometimes, but I think we’ve made some progress. We just have to keep chipping away.
“Man, listen, we’ve got our heads down. We’re digging. We’re working really, really hard, and fine-tuning everything that we can possibly do. I have a lot of confidence in our team to be able to perform at our best when it’s required the most. I think that we certainly enjoy this time of year a lot individually, and we’re just excited to give it a go and we’ll see where it takes us.”
- Joey Logano – No. 22 Team Penske Ford (-65)
If there’s one driver that would love nothing more than to spoil the party this off season, it’s Joey Logano.
After winning three championships under the old Playoff format, it was his title in 2024 that really started the conversation to changing the championship format to what we have now in 2026, so needless to say Logano and the No. 22 team have a chip on their shoulder as they hope to silence the doubters once again.
For a while in 2026, it appeared Logano might not even make the Chase this season, falling as far down as 20th in the standings by the time the calendar reached July. But in true Logano fashion, he slowly started climbing his way out of the hole as the Chase drew nearer.
Logano would finish the regular season with two wins in the final six races to earn the ninth seed in the Chase, and though he’ll have work to do to close the gap between himself and the championship leaders, the fact that Logano made the Chase makes them a dangerous group if things fall their way over the next 10 races.
In addition, Logano has previously scored wins at all 10 of the tracks in the Chase, setting up nicely for the No. 22 team to possibly make a run, even with the odds kind of stacked against them sitting so many points back to start the postseason.
What the Driver Says:
“That’s a reputation that we’ve earned over the years is that, unfortunately, during the regular season we seem to just be OK, and then it gets to game time and the 22 starts to show up, so I feel confident in our team that we can do it,” said Logano.
“People think that way because we have done it and we’ve done it multiple times, so I feel like we can show up again when it matters and do it in a different format.”
“I do feel like we’re much better than ninth at the moment,” Logano added of the current state of the No. 22 team. “We’ve come from a ways back and so now if I look at the last seven, eight races, we’re the best car, so I do feel like we’re in contention to do this.
“Now, we haven’t completely climbed out of the hole that we’ve dug ourselves, but we’re the team that can do it and we’ve got that momentum on our side, so I feel strong about that.”
- Chris Buescher – No. 17 RFK Racing Ford (-70)
From the very beginning of the season, Chris Buescher never wavered on his belief that the No. 17 team would be one of the Chase contenders and 26 races later, he was proven correct when he secured his spot in the championship field.
Things could get off to a hot start this weekend in Darlington, where Buescher has finished in the top-10 in six of his last seven starts at the track “Too Tough to Tame,” along with a prior win at Bristol in 2022 and top-five and top-10 finishes at all of the remaining tracks in the Chase.
Buescher remains optimistic that his team can overcome the odds, but also noted that they are realistic about the tough road ahead given the 70-point deficit that sits between them and the points leader.
What the Driver Says:
“We’re optimistic that we can do great things here and simply being a part of this thing that if we hit everything right, and we can have a run at a championship,” Buescher said.
“We have a lot of good tracks for us, but we’re also realistic in the fact knowing that it hasn’t been our season to this date, that we’ve been able to go to these places and hunt for the wins at all of them.
“We’ve had a couple of shining moments in a lot of race weekends that were just sitting in like the sixth, seventh or eighth window. We need to be better than that, so we’re optimistic about it, but we’re gonna be real at the same time that we can’t sit still.
“Blind optimism would just have us hoping for the best and it’s not gonna be hope that gets there, it’s gonna be a lot of work and getting better and really executing at the highest level.”
- Daniel Suarez – No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet (-75)
Suarez sits right on the edge of being at least a race behind the championship leader to start the Chase given the maximum of 76 points that any driver can earn in one race, but that hasn’t tempered the outlook for the No. 7 team through the final 10 races.
When Suarez joined Spire Motorsports this season after a five-year stint with Trackhouse Racing, not many expected him to be one of the Chase contenders, but Suarez and Spire as a whole have found the speed this season to be in the conversation when the regular season came to a close.
In the midst of one of his best seasons in recent memory, Suarez comes into the Chase with one win, three top-five finishes, and seven top-10 finishes in the bank through the first 26 races of the season.
But while a solid regular season is something to be excited about, Suarez noted that the job isn’t done until the checkered flag flies at Homestead at season’s end.
What the Driver Says:
“I’m very proud of the effort,” Suarez said of the regular season success and making the Chase with Spire in his first season with the team.
“With that being said, I still don’t want to think about it too much because, in my mind, the job is not done yet. We still have a quarter of the season left and that’s the most important one. Hopefully we can continue to grow, continue to learn and continue to improve on this No. 7 team.”
- Carson Hocevar – No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet (-80)
The Hurricane has made landfall in the Chase.
Carson Hocevar is in the midst of a career year, banking his first Cup Series win earlier this season and now makes his postseason debut in the Chase, delivering Spire Motorsports two entries in pursuit of the championship.
Ever the wild card of the bunch, Hocevar has long odds stacked against him to make a run at the title, but that hasn’t toned down the bravado of the No. 77 team that hopes to make some noise over the next 10 weeks. They may not end the season as champions, but sure enough they’ll have fun along the way.
What the Driver Says:
“Our team moral or motto is we’re playing with house money. Luke (Lambert) and Matt McCall were on that 31 team in 2014, and that’s how they approached it, and they finished second. I’m not going to look at the points until the end. They’ll let me know when I walk up at the banquet where I finished.”
- William Byron – No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (-85)
There are down years and then there’s the 2026 season for William Byron and the No. 24 team that has seen lows for top-fives and top-10s not seen since the 2022 season.
The only difference that season was Byron visited victory lane on two different occasions and this year, Byron has not won a race since Martinsville last November to punch his ticket to the Championship 4.
With the team’s struggles this season and long odds ahead, Byron explained that it kind of takes the pressure off knowing they’re not the favorite and now they can just go out and race and however the chips may fall, they’ll accept it.
What the Driver Says:
“Yeah, we are not the favorites, and we know that,” said Byron. “But being in that position where you can kind of go into it with an open mind and capitalize on anything is really nice, so I am looking forward to that. There’s not a lot of pressure, so we can just go out there and perform.”
“I think it’s anyone’s game,” Byron added about championship favorites. “I mean, look at how the points have swung over the year between first and second. So, I think it’s really going to be who performs the best for 10 races. I would really love to be the first seed, but I think it’s going to come down to who races well the next 10 weeks.”
- Bubba Wallace – No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota (-90)
Wallace may be starting the Chase with a points deficit of more than a race, but he and the No. 23 team are as confident as ever that they will be in the mix when all is said and done.
Wallace has the luxury of being able to pull from both 23XI and Toyota as a whole in the postseason, with both showing the speed all season long and the Chase should be no different as he looks to make a run at the title to be the driver to deliver 23XI its first championship.
The Chase tracks also line up well for Wallace, having won at both Kansas and Talladega, as well as finishing in the top-five and top-10 at all of the remaining tracks. Wallace finished in the top-five at Kansas earlier this season, along with top-10 finishes at Phoenix and Las Vegas.
What the Driver Says:
“You can’t ignore the fact that the nerves are there. Then yeah, it is time to go,” said Wallace. “You’ve worked hard all season long to put yourself in this position. Some are in better positions than others. For me, it is exciting for us on the 23 team.
“Really looking forward to Darlington and the next 10 weeks, but really trying to not get too far out ahead of ourselves. One step at a time. Base hits. Our Toyotas are stupid fast. We’ve recognized that many months ago, and so to just continue to build on that and just have fun and enjoy the moment. I think that is another aspect that we often forget is to enjoy the moment.
“It is always business as usual and super intense, but you have to have that pressure release valve kind of right there in your hip pocket to keep the emotions in check.”
- Austin Cindric – No. 2 Team Penske Ford (-95)
Cindric was able to lock himself into the Chase with his finish last weekend in Daytona and now it’s time to get to work over the course of the next 10 weeks as part of the three-car Team Penske stable that all qualified for the postseason.
However, Cindric has the longest odds of the three and will have to acclimate to a new pit crew starting this weekend in Darlington after the team elected to swap his pit crew with that of teammate Ryan Blaney for the run to the championship.
Nonetheless, expect Cindric and Team Penske to be strong on most of the tracks in the Chase minus the mile-and-a-halfs, even if the chips are stacked against them to overcome the points deficit they start the Chase with.
What the Driver Says:
“I feel like our postseason is 100 percent a swap in mentality. I feel like we can be free and go be aggressive for the next 10 weeks, whereas I feel like for the last three months we’ve been points racing, so I’m looking forward to that opportunity,” said Cindric.
He added that he understands the reason for the pit crew swap and now it’s just time to get down to business.
“Leadership called me earlier this week and kind of discussed the change and why the team felt like it made it. I completely understand the team’s perspective for why that is and obviously the opportunity for us moving forward, so I think that’s really all it boils down to. Back to work for the next 10 weeks.”
- Ryan Preece – No. 60 RFK Racing Ford (-100)
Why not us? After a Chase clinching win at Daytona a week ago, Ryan Preece and his No. 60 team may have a long road ahead to overcome the points deficit they currently have to the leaders, but they are still keeping that underdog mentality that drove them to victory last weekend.
It happened once, why not again? Preece noted on Saturday that in their current situation, they have nothing to lose and can be aggressive over the next 10 weeks to try and make a run, likening it to a Cinderella team making a charge through the NCAA Tournament.
Aside from the first two races of the Chase at Darlington and Gateway, Preece has a history of finishing in the top-five and top-10 at all of the remaining tracks and with the momentum firmly at their backs entering the postseason, the No. 60 team will certainly be a fun watch.
What the Driver Says:
“I don’t remember who it was in the NCAA Tournament a few years ago, but they were a complete underdog. I just remember there was an underdog and nobody expected them to go on and win, so I think a lot of it is circumstances and how you are as a team,” said Preece.
“I think in previous years usually the guy that was 16th in points was 28th or 30th and, I don’t know, their season wasn’t going really that great. I’m not saying ours had gone phenomenal, but I would say over the past three weeks, four weeks, we’ve taken a turn and we’ve had moments, so when I look at the next 10 weeks, these are all tracks that I feel really good about. We’ve had some decent runs and based on where Derrick and I are at right now and the 60 team, why not?
“If I came to Darlington, Gateway, Bristol – all those places – and if I showed up thinking I couldn’t win, I mean I’m not the race car driver you want.
“I feel like this weekend I’m excited about it and we’ll do the best we can. If we go on a tear and have a little bit of luck where those other guys don’t have the best weeks, it’s possible. I think you saw last week – 67 points, that’s a big difference.”
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